TwoMorrows Publishing and The Jack Kirby Collector magazine are cooperating to publish Jack 'King' Kirby's previously unseen penciled Captain Victory artwork.

 

All proceeds from this project will go towards scanning and restoring almost 5,000 pages of Kirby's photocopied pencil artwork before it fades away.  The material is currently deteriorating quickly, due to Kirby's use of an outdated copier with a process similar to thermal faxes.

 

Jack Kirby is well known for having co-created numerous superheroes with Stan Lee, such as The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Silver Surfer.  The loss of his penciled artwork would be a devastating blow to comics history.

 

The Captain Victory:  Graphite Edition, a one-shot to be released by TwoMorrows in March, 2004, will cover the material from the first two Pacific Comics issues, plus one page from the third, which were originally done by Kirby in 1975.  Also included in the 52-page, black and white, $5.95 cover-priced issue (with color cover) are Kirby's unused screenplay, previously unseen (non-story) art, and an introduction by John Morrow which provides the history of Captain Victory.

 

Twomorrows plans on publishing more historical comics in pencil only form if sales indicate enough interest, and depending on copyright availability.

 

And now that the Jack Kirby co-created Captain America has been freed from lawsuit limbo (see 'Marvel Settles Captain America Suit'), it is highly likely that a big screen movie will be made, putting Kirby and his other creations, such as Captain Victory, more in the spotlight.